Plea for support from Japanese farmers and fishermen

Dear Friends,

Thank you for your support and solidarity.

 

From several eyewitnesses we have confirmed following information on the unprecedented repression in the Tokyo High Court Building on Friday:

(1)    Immediately after the High Court “warned” the protesters to leave the High Court Building, the police physically assaulted the protesters and arrested around 40 protesters for “trespassing”.
In any countries, including Japan, the crime of trespassing cannot be applied to people who are in a public building without prior notice to leave and without reasonable time to leave.

(2)    The police also arrested a secretary of one of the lawyers of the Narita Farmers League who was only in the building to perform the job.

(3)    After demonstration in the morning and the court procedure in the afternoon, the 89 years old Secretary General of the Farmers League, KITAHARA Koji, became very tired and took a rest in a waiting room while other farmers protested the ruling of the judge. Nevertheless the police arrested Mr Kitahara without any advance warning whatsoever.

(4)    The 50 arrestees are detained separately in different police stations, often in very remote areas in Tokyo, so that the lawyers could visit only 20 arrestees or so in the Friday evening and Saturday early morning.

This is a video taken on the sidewalk of the Tokyo High Court.

http://youtu.be/d54jmGBVEDk

The Japanese government are now oppressing farmers and fishers in Fukushima, victims of the nuclear catastrophe, who have started to fight like Narita farmers. The unprecedented, unjust and unlawful mass arrest of Friday is done in order to intimidate people in Fukushima and beyond.

Please forward this email as widely as possible, send protest message to the Japanese government’s email form below and organize anti-nuke struggle all around the world.

 https://www.kantei.go.jp/foreign/forms/comment_ssl.html

In Solidarity,
International Labor Solidarity Committee of Doro-Chiba
Seto Tadashi